Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), December 1909, p. 498

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

corrosion on the structure. I put a %- in, rod of this material in like that (il- lustrating on blackboard), then I car- ried another heavy cable through here, and out here. Now, I submerged the whole. thing in a bath of water, simply so it could have a natural circulation or connection, as many automobile cooling devices. Into a coil smaller than what I have drawn, slightly shorter, I dissi- pated without any trouble 360 kw. con- tinuously, and after it came out it was just exactly as good, no rusting or de- terioration or anything else. That means that in these battleships I could make three barrels, as high as the blackboard, and connect them to the circulating sys- tem, so that the water would course through them, and take care of this power indefinitely. The whole thing could be equipped with rubber gaskets, which could be taken apart, so that an examination could be made in a few minutes. Rail Mills and Locomotives. Henry A. Magoun: Since I came nto the hall I have heard a number of things, and among' them the question of weights. I have no exact figures, but I would say at the time the con- tracts were taken for the Wyoming and the Wisconsin, that the rough weights as given to us were very considerably above what we were using. As I re- mémber, they would almost make it pro- hibitive to use this gear. Now, there are one or two other things. I have heard this arrangement compared to the electric locomotive, and also to a rail mill, and there seems to be no consideration given to the fact that it is to be used on a vessel. There is no comparison, particularly, between a battleship and an electric locomotive, and the question of handling this ar- rangement with switches from the pilot house appears to me rather ridiculous, because until you can handle your steam by a switch you cannot handle this ar- rangement by a switch. The fire room - is as important as the engine room. I also heard a comparison with rail mills. and I must say that I see no useful comparison whatever. In the case of the vessel, the steam is generated on the yessel and many things have to be taken into consideration besides the mere motor that runs a rail mill. I think the subject should be considered entirely from the standpoint of the vessel, and the use of the apparatus on locomotives or in rail mills is no proper basis for a comparison. m. A. Stevens Jr: Mr. . Emmet speaks of the comparatively low volt- I am familiar with the rail mills, TAE MarRINE REVIEW age used in the transmission, some 2,300 volts. To electrical engineers building high-tension lines and trans- mitting current several miles away by a high-tension line of 16,000 to 20,000 volts, 2,300 volts may seem somewhat | low, but to men accustomed to ships, using a voltage of 110, 2,300 volts seems extraordinarily high, and all who have been to sea know how damp it gets, es- pecially at night, and when you get up in the morning and put on your clothes, they are about as wet as if you had been on deck in a downpour. In a condition like that, and using a volt- age of 2,300, it. seems to me_ there would be great danger of having short circuits in the electrical apparatus. President Taylor: These remarks are somewhat out of order, but the paper was so interesting that we will ask Mr. Emmet -to reply. Mr. Emmet's Conclusion. Mr. Emmet: My comparison of the turbine to be used on a battleship' with rail mills and locomotives was simply in reply to the criticism that such jumps could not be made. I was simply giving it, in view of the jumps which have been made successfully. I do not think the conditions are similar, except that the motor happened to-be the same. The services in a rail mill vary considerably, and are very heavy on the induction mo- December, 1909 tor. The place is very dirty, and it proves the reliability of that particular kind of apparatus, So far as the voltage is concerned, this voltage could be made anything, I could connect the circuit of the apparatus in parallel and run down to 100 volts, if I wanted to, but it would not be good engineering to do it. The damp- ness which has been mentioned would have no effect whatever on the insula- tion put on the apparatus. It is not like equipping the whole ship with 2,300 volts, it is simply two pieces of apparatus side by side, connected together by two cables which are in sight, and no matter how damp it is, it is easy to keep elec- tric apparatus dry simply by a ques- tion of temperature and_ ventilation, warming it by electrical current, if you please, but it would not be necessary in this case; we could put a waterproof insulation on the entire apparatus and dampness would not affect it. We have had motors operating at high voltage that had been saturated. I started two generators in Washington that had half the insulation burned off, and then sub- merged, and we cleaned them up, and in an hour or two had them running again. This voltage is adopted because it is simple and direct, and there is no ques- tion whatever about continuity and re- liability even under conditions of mois- ture. Producer Gas Boat Marenging 'L. Aldrich's paper, "The Producer * Gas Boat Marenging," was then read by its author. This paper gives the results of installing a producer gas plant in a 40-ft. power boat driven by a four-cylinder, four-cycle engine of the usual. stock type. The boat made a round trip from New York to Albany on a consumption of 2.31 ibs. of coal per mile or 636 lbs. for 2/5. miles. Discussion by Mr. Monteagle. R. C. Monteagle: In looking over this paper it would appear that some important data are missing, the more important of which are the brake horsepower and the displacement of the boat. For a comparison of any value to be made in economy of fuel between the producer gas engine and any other type of motor, whether gasoline, kerosene, crude oil or steam, some standard of power must be adopted, and the brake horsepower as a unit is as easy 'to realize as any other. The expression, "economy of fuel,' is a comparative one only,ana when the author states, as he does on page 5, that the main question at issue in making these tests was that of economy, it is necessary to have all the data by which to determine such economy. Under ordinary con- ditions the engine of the Marenging using gasoline, for which it was de- signed, would develop say 40 H. P., at 400 R. P. M., and an assumed mean pressure in the cylinders of 75 Ibs. per sq. in., which may be easily real- ized. With producer gas and a pres- sure of 90 Ibs. as given, it would be fair to assume that a mean pressure of 60 Ibs. could be realized with a gas 30 per cent leaner than that pro- duced by. gasoline. Figured at 400 revolutions, this gives approximately 32 H. P., and with an engine efficiency of 90 per cent this gives practically 2o.B. HW. P.. Thergreatest fuel econ- omy heretofore obtained from a pro- ducer gas engine of say 500 lbs. B. H. P. has been approximately 1 lb. OF coal per. Bi H.P., dnd for..an en- gine of 50 B. H. P. it; approximates 1% Ibs. of coal per B. H. P. As the author states that the engine installed in the Marenging is a stock gaso-

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy